Comment is free + CS Lewis | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+books/cslewis
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Aldous Huxley: the prophet of our brave new digital dystopia | John Naughtonhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/22/aldous-huxley-prophet-dystopia-cs-lewis
CS Lewis may be getting a plaque. But Huxley, for his foretelling of a society that loves servitude, is the true visionary<p>On 22 November 1963 the world was too preoccupied with the Kennedy assassination to pay much attention to the passing of two writers from the other side of the Atlantic: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/14/cs-lewis-aldous-huxley" title="">CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley</a>. Fifty years on, Lewis is being honoured with a plaque in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey, to be unveiled in a ceremony on Friday. The fanfare for Huxley has been more muted.</p><p>There are various reasons for this: <a href="https://www.narnia.com/uk" title="">The Chronicles of Narnia</a> propelled their author into the Tolkien league; Shadowlands, the film about his life starring Anthony Hopkins, moved millions; and his writings on religious topics made him a global figure in more spiritual circles. There is a <a href="http://www.lewissociety.org/" title="">CS Lewis Society of California</a>, for example; plus a <a href="http://www.cslewisreview.org/" title="">CS Lewis Review</a> and a <a href="http://library.taylor.edu/cslewis/index.shtml" title="">Centre for the Study of CS Lewis &amp; Friends</a> at a university in Indiana.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/22/aldous-huxley-prophet-dystopia-cs-lewis">Continue reading...</a>Aldous HuxleyCS LewisGeorge OrwellTechnologyBooksCultureSocietyUK newsFri, 22 Nov 2013 06:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/22/aldous-huxley-prophet-dystopia-cs-lewisHulton Archive/Getty ImagesAldous Huxley pictured in the 1930s. 'We failed to notice that our runaway infatuation with the sleek toys produced by the likes of Apple and Samsung might well turn out to be as powerful a narcotic as soma.' Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesHulton Archive/Getty ImagesAldous Huxley pictured in the 1930s. 'We failed to notice that our runaway infatuation with the sleek toys produced by the likes of Apple and Samsung might well turn out to be as powerful a narcotic as soma.' Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesJohn Naughton2013-11-22T06:00:01ZIn praise of … the wise oneshttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/in-praise-of-the-wise-ones
In their different ways, John F Kennedy, Aldous Huxley and CS Lewis were wise – and we still need their wisdom<p>Coincidence from time to time reminds us that we are but Lilliputian, and that a race of giants went before. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_22" title="">This Friday</a> is the 50th anniversary of the deaths of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy" title="">John F Kennedy</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley" title="">Aldous Huxley</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis" title="">CS Lewis</a>, as well as the centenary of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten" title="">Benjamin Britten</a>. Reputations may fluctuate, but the great composer, the near great president, and the two English intellectuals in search of spiritual enlightenment had some things in common. They all confronted what is evil in mankind and they all offered a message of hope. The deaths of John the Savage in Huxley's Brave New World, of Billy Budd in Britten's opera, and of Aslan in Lewis's Narnia parable for children were all sacrifices that implied the possibility of redemption. In the real world, Kennedy faced the spectre of nuclear war and played his part in saving us from evil on a scale we cannot even now wholly fathom. In their different ways they were wise – and we still need their wisdom.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/in-praise-of-the-wise-ones">Continue reading...</a>John F KennedyAldous HuxleyCS LewisMon, 18 Nov 2013 22:15:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/in-praise-of-the-wise-onesEditorial2013-11-18T22:15:06ZRowan Williams and Francis Spufford on being a Christian | Mark Vernonhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/aug/19/rowan-williams-francis-spufford-christian
The archbishop and the historian have the elusory character of Christianity on their minds in their new books<p>What is it like to be a Christian? Not what do Christians believe or how many superstitions do they quietly excuse before breakfast? But what is faith as experienced?</p><p>It is an important question because, as Rowan Williams notes in his new book, <a href="http://www.spckpublishing.co.uk/shop/lions-world-the/" title="">The Lion's World</a>, people might think they know what faith is about when, today, they perhaps don't, never having been there. Subtitled &quot;A Journey Into the Heart of Narnia&quot;, the book is partly about CS Lewis. But it is also a chance for the archbishop of Canterbury to convey what Christianity means to him. This is difficult to do, not only because contemporary Britons lack Christian experience but because, as titular head of the established Church of England, Williams recognises a need to &quot;rinse out what is stale in our thinking about Christianity – which is almost everything&quot;.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/aug/19/rowan-williams-francis-spufford-christian">Continue reading...</a>ChristianityRowan WilliamsUK newsCS LewisBooksReligionWorld newsReligionSun, 19 Aug 2012 11:29:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/aug/19/rowan-williams-francis-spufford-christianGali Tibbon/AFP/Getty ImagesRowan Williams conveys what being a Christian means to him in his new book, The Lion's World. Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty ImagesGali Tibbon/AFP/Getty ImagesRowan Williams conveys what being a Christian means to him in his new book, The Lion's World. Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty ImagesMark Vernon2012-08-19T11:29:01ZPrayer and nonsense | Andrew Brownhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/jan/11/religion-psychology
The patent untruth of religious language might have more benefits besides making it memorable<p>I have been reading the letters of CS Lewis again: they seem written from an immense distance. In important ways, they are. He reached the trenches, as a second lieutenant in France, on his 19th birthday; of the time when he got his blighty wound, the regimental history records that </p><p>The casualties of the 1st battalion between 14th and 16th April were: 2/Lieut. L.B. Johnson died of wounds (15/4/18) and 2/Lieuts C.S. Lewis, A.G. Rawlence, J.R. Hill and C.S. Dowding wounded: in other ranks the estimated losses were 210 killed, wounded and missing.</p><p>As we learn to talk we forget what we have to say. Humanity, from this point of view, is rather like a man coming gradually awake and trying to describe his dreams: as soon as his mind is sufficiently awake for a clear description, the thing which was to be described is gone … Religion and poetry are about the only languages in modern Europe – if you can regard them as &quot;languages&quot; – which till have traces of the dream in them, still have something to say. Compare &quot;Our Father which art in Heaven&quot; with &quot;The supreme being transcends space and time&quot;. The first goes to pieces if you begin to apply literal meaning to it. How can anything but a sexual animal really be a father? How can it be in the sky? The second falls into no such traps. On the other hand the first really means something, really represents a concrete experience in the minds of those who use it: the second is mere dextrous playing with counters, and once a man has learned the rule he can go on that way for two volumes without really using the words to refer to any concrete <em>fact</em> at all ...<br /></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/jan/11/religion-psychology">Continue reading...</a>ReligionPsychologyAtheismCS LewisChristianityMon, 11 Jan 2010 10:30:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/jan/11/religion-psychologyAndrew Brown2010-01-11T10:30:38Z